The Fabulous MOA!

Last Thursday my religion class toured the Museum of Art on BYU campus. We saw some of the new collection being shown about types and shadows of Christ. The exhibit focused on the symbolism used to represent Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Rita, our tour guide, led us through and facilitated great discussion among the group members. I have always found that when viewing something abstract as a representation of Christ or His acts of pure love, I learn something new and different than what I normally learn from the things that speak so plainly of Him. One of my favorite pictures in the museum is the one of titled, "The Prodigal Son". It is a painting of a meal covered in a blue cloth divided into three parts. The first represents the grand life of the Son of a King using crisp, fresh apples and a bright blue cloth. The second shows the food slightly rotted, dark, non-appetizing, and all somewhat meshed together. The third panel is beautiful again, but this time it is slightly different than the first signifying that there had been a change from the first panel. I like this because it shows that we all have the ability to repent and become clean again through the power of the Atonement. As I think about it now, it also reminds me of the plan of salvation. In the beginning we lived with God, our Heavenly Father and King. We made the choice to leave Him for a short while and life is not a crisp, clean and beautiful as it was while we lived in His presence. We have the opportunity to learn and improve and rely on our Savior to purify us so we can return to live with our Father again. When that time comes, the panel of our life will be clean again. Everything will be glorious and beautiful and we will have greater abundance because of the experiences we have had. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that the Atonement is real and that because Christ loves each of us so much, we can return to live with God again! We can become clean from all of our sins and enjoy the happiness and peace and beauty that we once had for eternity!